Fists flew in unprecedented scenes of violence at a major grocery chain and one man was arrested as Britain was swept away in a buying frenzy that saw shelves cleared of cut-price items in minutes.

Asda was at the centre of the biggest bust-ups as shoppers battled to grab half a million gadgets, toys and tellies at knock down prices.

There were reports of shoppers raiding trollies for smartphones when backs were turned and rushing to the checkout to pay for them before being found out.

One furious customer who tried to bag two bargain 60 inch TVs for £598 each an Asda store in Bristol, was wrestled to the ground by five security staff following an argument with a member of staff.

With a strict one gadget or electrical item per person, tempers frayed as the shopper was told to put one product back and in a scuffle, an employee suffered a cut to the face.

The male shopper was frogmarched out of the Cribbs Causeway store and arrested by police as thousands of sales goers carried on shopping.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesperson said: “We were called to Asda to reports a security guard had been assaulted. A 35-year-old man was detained and remains in custody.”

And in Belfast a woman was taken to hospital with a suspected broken arm after a stampede over cut-price televisions.

There were also claims that a heavily pregnant woman was pushed and shoved and pensioners were knocked to the ground by frantic shoppers battling to get their hands on Christmas deals at the chain’s West Belfast supermarket.

Restrained: The man struggles with security staff (Image: SWNS)

Thousands of early birds began queuing outside Asda stores across Britain from 5am - three hours before doors opened - with some savvy shoppers turning up in pyjamas to grab rock bottom deals.

And they cleaned out the chain in minutes as Blu-ray players were slashed to £49, Samsung Mini smartphones were a giveaway £99, TVs were up for grabs from £99, laptops for £199 and hairdryers and straighteners £15.

One of the most popular items were £49 Cyclone Explorer tablets with 11,400 sold in the first hour.

The bargains bonanza saw frenzied shoppers race down the aisles in the snatch of the day, grabbing armloads of products that were not restricted to one each with pallets that were piled high with goods from bikes and to toys stripped bare within two minutes.

Asda’s Benton store in Newcastle descended into chaos within seconds as shoppers pushed and shoved each other to load trolleys with cut price booty.

In a statement it said: “This is the first time Black Friday has been done on this scale in stores across the UK and our customers were eager to take advantage of the great offers available to them.

"We planned for high demand and the half a million Black Friday products on offer to our customers have been selling quickly since 8am.

“Throughout the event the safety of our customers is of vital importance and to ensure our stores can cope with the extra footfall we have full security teams in our stores and extra colleagues to help assist customers in the aisles.”

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It is the first time Asda, along with department store John Lewis, has jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon which rolled into Britain from America three years ago, courtesy of online giant Amazon.

Shopping centres joined in with Meadowhall, Sheffield reporting the busiest day of the year with 200,000 packing the mall and similar numbers expected over the weekend as designer brand like Armani lopped prices by up to 30%.

The American event which follows Thanksgiving is a massive US sales tradition and the phrase was coined by Philadelphia police in the Sixties following chaotic scenes.

They dubbed it Black Friday after hordes of shoppers took to the streets, causing traffic jams, pavement rage and scraps.

More recently two people were shot after fighting over a parking space outside a Walmart store in Tallahassee Florida last year and in 2011 a woman pepper-sprayed the crowd at a Walmart in Los Angeles so she could grab a Nintendo Wii slashed by 60%.

Despite the buying frenzy, Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Amazon, which crashed prices by up to 70% today, is gearing up for a possible meltdown at 6pm on Monday when workers head home and use mobile phones and tablets to bag Christmas bargains.

It expects to sell more than 3.5 million items at a rate of around 41 items per second and experts say shoppers will have blown £4.4 billion over the four day spending spree.

Will Britain ever be sold on US spending frenzy?

The phenomenal reaction we have seen today across our stores says it all - Black Friday is set to become as pivotal a moment in the British retail calendar, as it is in the USA.

The last weekend in November is always a critical trading period in retail and with our Black Friday deals – a first for a UK supermarket – we have had the busiest shopping day of the year so far.

We know that British shoppers are starting to save for Christmas from as early as July and starting their shopping earlier each year. The arrival and increased awareness of Black Friday in the UK means Brits now expect to bag a bargain from as early as November.

British retailers should embrace Black Friday here in the UK. After seeing how successful it has been in the US and the positive result of this year’s sale, Black Friday is likely to become the new official start to the festive shopping season in the UK too.

Although it might take several years to really gain momentum, as it did for Halloween to become a major retail event in the UK, Black Friday is likely to become a significant moment for savvy shoppers looking for earth shattering deals on great products.

Today we have seen how customers react to genuine deals, not gimmicks and promotions. I would expect a number of other British retailers will be watching our sale today closely with a view to try to follow our lead next year.

The high street has been reduced to a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming mobile commerce juggernaut and there is going to be road kill.

For the traditional high street retailer, Black Friday may appear to be a godsend - however, the brawls and arrests that took place in some stores yesterday, exposed many of the negative aspects attached to the phenomenon.

The high street has latched onto the Black Friday concept in a desperate attempt to drum up business and entice consumers into their stores, which ultimately need propping up because the physical shopping experience is so poor.

High street stores need to be innovative enough to realise that the way in which consumers interact with them has changed and the whole shopping experience has evolved. Simply pinning their strategy to huge discounting on one day won’t cut it - it is now about engaging with customers all year round, via a multi channel approach that encompasses the use of their mobile phones, tablets and social media.

The real winners of Black Friday are the online stores - they will be the ones benefiting from close to £10 billion worth of consumer spending between Black Friday and Christmas. This is because the online shopping experience is so much more pleasurable.